There are obviously many decades of history that I have not gathered.
This is just a compiling of notes from various projects I have worked on
over the years. This is but the tip of the iceberg that is our railroad
history.

An architectural (and stability?) survey of the S&CVRR railroad
tunnel (which runs under NY 92) was done by NYS DOT in the late 1980s,
but I have never seen it. A copy is said to be on file in the town
office, with photos and maps.

Eidos Magazine (pub. by the Idyllic
Foundation, Cazenovia, NY) Summer 1978 2(1):16-21"Beneath the Earth, Part II: The Tunnel" by Kathy Marland(Notes extracted and clarified by DHW)

Interviewed "Mrs. Lombard" who has lived nearby for 80 years, but her memories
were limited to a few trips through the tunnel in her childhood.

Also interviewed Mrs. Lombard's brother, Riley Vibbert, who lived nearby
for most of his life (in 1978 he lived with his son, Eugene Vibbert, in
West Eaton) and had worked on the New York Central Rail Road since age
16 just prior to World War I, and until about 1935. During WWI Riley
was a guard on at the tunnel, and after the war continued on as a maintenance
man for the tunnel and rail road.

The opening to the tunnel is about 20 feet high and 18 feet wide.

Date 1912 on face of concrete entrance is when the opening to the tunnel
was rebuilt.

Part of the tunnel is reinforced with brick arches, rest in large wooden
beams.

Many places collapsed.

Rock taken out in building the tunnel was used to pave many local roads.

A cable and pulley system was used to open and close the two large wooden
doors that covered each entrance. The doors were opened and closed
by lifting and lowering a series of (counter) weights which hung in two
deep holes on either side of the tracks on top of the concrete entrances.
These holes can still be seen and a steel ladder (built into the concrete)
gave access to the bottom of the pits.

The "Tickler" was a series of wires hung over the track about 200 yards
from the entrance to the tunnel and which warned of the upcoming tunnel.
The "Tickler" consisted of a series of 6 foot long wires which dangled
from a 4 foot long board that was attached to a cable stretched over the
track. When the train passed under neath the wires would strike ("tickle")
the train and warn the brakeman that the tunnel was just ahead.

An ice train got stalled near the tunnel and an approaching train ran over
Riley's warning flag thus removing any responsibility from Riley.

A snowplow, which was attached to the front of the engine to clear snow
from the tracks, once ran through the doors of the tunnel. The snowplow
cab-man was supposed to signal the engineer of any dangers, but he had
not seen the red light warning of the closed doors. "Without his
signal the engineer had now way of knowing what was ahead, so they proceeded
through the tunnel doors."

Immigrants would come into this area on "carload after carload."
"Because of the small engines and the long hill from Oran to Cazenovia,
they had to stop before entering the tunnel to rebuild pressure.
Here the immigrants had a chance to get out and stretch. Riley said
these people had very little, most of them carried only a small bag or
handkerchief with their valuables inside. Food became a problem on
the journey ... (and) these new people would dig up dandelions and eat
them raw while the train made these stops."

Imagine yourselves towards the close of a warm afternoon
in the passenger coach of a train on a small branch railroad, which connects
with the mainline at an outlandish little station, where the agent informs
you that the stage coach in which you had hoped to reach your destination
had been abandoned this twenty years, and that Cazenovia now had two railroads
of its own.

But as the train begins slowly to ascend the up-grade your disappointment
vanishes, for the hills are just the same, the little stream with its overhanging
trees and great boulders, the old stone mill, with the boys playing in
front of the cottages opposite, are identical to what you remember of the
place before this dreadful modern innovation with its screeching whistle
came to wake the echoes among these hills. [New York Journal
reprinted in the Cazenovia Republican, June 12, 1890]

Many people shared the same sense of nostalgia at the passing of the iron
horse in Cazenovia that the New York Journal writer felt for the passing
of the stagecoach. It was the railroads, (Cazenovia encouraged two
to snake their rails through the fastness of its countryside), that allowed
the village to evolve into a late nineteenth-century summer paradise.

Because of its location in the "salubrious" highlands, advantages gained
by beautiful location were lost in the difficulties involved in developing
adequate lines of transportation. The early advantage of turnpike
roads was quickly lost to the superior technology of canals and the early
railroads, which could operate effectively only in the relatively level
lowlands to the north of Cazenovia.

Aside from its 1830 flirtation with railroading, serious interest in
bringing iron rails to Cazenovia did not begin until the guns of the Union
and Confederate armies fell silent at Appomattox Court House. With
the horror of war also came rapid advances in railroad technology.

The Cazenovia Republican announced a meeting to discuss the railroad
question. At the Lincklaen House on September 28, 1867 Dr. Alvin
Foord, of patent medicine fame, presided and L. Wolters Ledyard acted as
secretary. Several proposals were discussed, including the building
of a line from Canastota or possible inclusion in the planned New York
& Oswego Midland, expected to pass between Syracuse and Norwich.
A majority of those at the meeting resolved to support the building of
a line to Canastota or other convenient points on the New York Central
Railroad. They also appointed committees to study finances and survey
the line.

Concluded the Republican:

It will be seen that the project of connecting Cazenovia
by rail with some point on the Central is not wholly an imaginative idea;
but the support which it receives from the leading men of both Cazenovia
and Canastota show it to be a practical one. [Cazenovia Republican,
October 2,1867]

Other railroad proposals continued to be advanced. In January of
1868 a second Cazenovia railroad scheme, supported by a group headed by
Ledyard family business rival Henry Ten Eyck, passed the talking stage
as the Republican reported that surveyors of the Syracuse, Fayetteville
& Manlius Railroad were looking for a possible route from Manlius to
Cazenovia. Still other parties promoted a route between Chittenango
and Cazenovia, one that earlier committees had rejected as being impractical.

Momentum was on the side of the Canastota route. The state senate
chartered the Cazenovia & Canastota Railroad on April 2, 1868.
By April 26 bonds to cover the anticipated $205,000 cost of the line were
fully subscribed. The Board of Directors broke ground for the railroad
on April 27, 1869 on a farm in Perryville.

In the meantime supporters of the proposed railroad from Syracuse, now
called the Syracuse & Chenango Valley, met at Concert Hall on June
26, 1869 and resolved to build a line through "Beckwith's Gap" on the west
side of Cazenovia Lake to a point less than a mile from the Lincklaen House.
The line would connect with another road then under construction, giving
it a through route to New York.

On the C & C, land was purchased for the construction of a terminal
in an area of the village called "Willow Bridge" on Burr Street.
Although the company originally wished to place its depot on Albany Street,
it was

estimated that it would cost $15,000 to build the road from
"Willow Bridge" to Albany Street - the saving of which is no small item.
The depot will be nearer the center of the village than in two-thirds of
the villages in the state. [Cazenovia Republican, June
30, 1869]

Grading and filling of the roadbed began in 1870, and by August 2nd of
that year the laying of track began. Two weeks later the first locomotive
was placed on the line, by then completed to Clockville. The 25-ton
machine made by the Schenectady Locomotive Works was given the number "1"
and named "Cazenovia."

The S & CV road was also busy with construction. Having abandoned
the idea of passing over "Beckwith's Gap," the railroad began boring a
tunnel under the ridge in the summer of 1870, a project that would require
two years to complete.

On December 7, 1870, the Cazenovia & Canastota Railroad was opened
with appropriate ceremony. The Republican reporter wrote:

The engine bell and whistle, the puff of steam, and the roll
of iron wheels, are now, already, becoming familiar sounds, so readily
do
we fall into new ways, and ere long we will forget the ‘old times' when
our village was not linked to the thoroughfares of the world. [Cazenovia
Republican, December 14, 1870]

Service on the S & CV was opened as far as the tunnel in 1871, with
George Shute's stagecoach carrying passengers the rest of the way to the
village. Two years later a correspondent of the Syracuse Standard
was able to write that

when the road emerges from the tunnel, in a few moments
we reach the handsome sheet of water known as Cazenovia Lake. Can
there be a more beautiful inland lake in the world? It is clear as
crystal, and the banks are fringed by the finest verdure, and surrounded
with the richest farming landscape. The cars land passengers at the
depot near the lake and take stage to the village. [Syracuse Standard
reprint in the Cazenovia Republican, August 7,1873]

The two railroads were off and running, periodically facing bankruptcy
proceedings and changing names as they developed. Neither road evolved
into a "mainline" or carried enough traffic to make them prosperous.
The S & CV eventually fell into the hands of the New York Central Railroad
and ended its days hauling milk, gravel, and Cazenovia Lake ice to Syracuse.
The Cazenovia segment of the line was abandoned in the 1930s. The
C & C eventually became a branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad carrying
farm and building supplies until its ultimate demise in 1967.

The primary value of the railroads to Cazenovia was transporting summer
visitors and bringing in cheap goods from the outside. For Cazenovia's
native industries, the effect was probably more detrimental than valuable.
While there was some benefit in increasing their access to outside markets,
most of them were soon overwhelmed by the cheaper goods brought into the
central New York area by rail.

Whether positive or negative, the building of the railroads to Cazenovia
served as the major instrument of the rapid changes that overtook the village
in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Page 59Although a railroad to Cazenovia was conceived and incorporated as
the Madison County Railroad in 1830, the seeds of the first successful
railway into the village were planted at a public meeting held on September
28, 1867. Construction started a year and a half later. When
this photograph was taken in August of 1870, track laying had advanced
nearly to Cazenovia from Canastota.

Page 60In 1891, the morning passenger train to Syracuse stops just south {north}
of the People's Ice Company icehouse on the west shore of Cazenovia Lake
to pick up summer campers bound for jobs in the city. Campers living
south of the tunnel had convenient train connections to city jobs, so that
working fathers could join vacationing families.

Page 62Visiting photographer Augustus Pruyn recorded views of Cazenovia lake
from the Pompey Road (Rte 20) in the 1890s catching a pump house and water
tower of the Syracuse & Chenango Valley Railroad as well.

Page 63A little further up the line another Syracuse Camera Club member recorded
both train and lake barge "Lakeview" [Crawford]. The two modes of
transport carried thousands of excursionists to Cazenovia Lake picnic grounds
during the 1870s and 1880s.

Page 64Like the pounding of the gold spike at Promontory Point, Utah, a year
earlier, the laying of the last rail of the Cazenovia & Canastota Railroad
on December 7, 1870, was cause for celebration. A.A. Johnson {E.G.
Weld} photograph.

Page 65Switching completed, a locomotive of the Cazenovia & Canastota
Railroad, poses for the camera in this 1870s view. The large building
on the left was the passenger station and train shed. The structure
served until 1894 when the new owner, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, removed
the shed and rebuilt the waiting rooms into the passenger station which
still exists today. The fright house on the right still survives
as part of a lumber yard. A.A. Johnson photograph.

Page 66 (left)By 1874, when this photograph was taken, many of the small industries
which had dotted the banks of Chittenango creek had begun to disappear
due to the competition from cheaply produced goods brought in by the new
Cazenovia & Canastota Railroad, shown here in the foreground.
This complex is labeled the cedar Grove mill and produced woolen products.
it was located just north of the village on a site now occupied by a sewage
treatment plant. In 1895 the mill was operated as the Applegate &
Co. furniture factory. {The Cedar Grove mills was off the left edge of
the picture and was no longer standing by the time the railroad was built.
At the time of this photograph, c. 1877, these buildings were occupied
by Andrew Dardis' Tannery, which was occupied briefly, around 1885, by
the Appleton & Co. furniture factory.}

Page 66 (right)A sign of transportation progress in Cazenovia was the raw cut leading
from the south {also considered east as it faces almost directly east}
portal of the newly bored tunnel on the Syracuse & Chenango Valley
Railroad. The tunnel was under construction from 1870 to 1872.
This view was shot from West Lake Road, which passes directly over the
south {east} portal. Cazenovia Lake can be seen in the background.

Page 67 (left)Cazenovia's second railroad, the Syracuse & Chenango Valley, was
constructed in 1870. Opening of the line was slowed by the necessity
of digging the tunnel through Palmer Hill, a long ridge west of Cazenovia
Lake {more appropriately, it was dug under "Beckwith's Gap" - Palmer Hill
is that section of NY 92 rising along the east face of Pompey Hollow from
near Temperance Road and reaching its peak north of the location of the
tunnel}. In this 1871 view of the south {east} portal through the
tunnel has not been opened.

Page 67 (right)By 1872, the finished tunnel portal and the proverbial light at the
end announced the soon to be commenced rail service to Cazenovia by the
Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad.

Page 68This moody view of the causeway across the swamp at the southern end
of Cazenovia Lake to the S&CV depot points out the importance of not
missing Shute's omnibus to the village. To do so meant a one mile-trudge
to the nearest hotel. The photo was taken by Anna R. Fitcher in 1891.

Page 69On his 1875 visit to Cazenovia, a member of the Syracuse Camera Club
recorded this view of the Syracuse & Chenango Valley Railroad station.
George Shute's omnibus waits to carry disembarking passengers the mile
to Cazenovia.

Page 70Tannery Dam is the title of this 1886 winter scene by Charles Marshall.
The building on the left appears to be the blacksmith and machine shop,
and box shop of the Shelter Valley Mill. The mil was built in 1862
to produce textiles. When this photograph was taken the complex was
known as the Glen Woolen Mills, a manufacturer of felt. {The tannery was
not locate here at any time, it was about a mile further up stream.}

Page 71The railroad to Cazenovia, the triumph of the early 1870s, was extended
southward with the incorporation of the Cazenovia, Canastota & DeRuyter
Railroad in 1875. Spanning the principal obstacle to the line's progress,
Chittenango Creek, was this spidery iron truss bridge built in 1878.
In the rear, left {right} stands McCabe's blacksmith shop. One of
several in the village, it once stood on space now occupied by its spiritual
descendant, a gas station and convenience store.

Page 72By the century's end the Lehigh Valley Railroad controlled the old
C&C. The passenger depot on the left was rebuilt in 1894, losing
its covered train shed. Reported the Cazenovia Republican:

People ... will be surprised the next time they take a train
... and will wonder if they are in Cazenovia or some station of the New
York Central. The old depot is so completely remodeled, that when
it is finished it will present no traces of its former self. [Cazenovia
Republican, May 26, 1894] Jabez Abell photograph.

Cazenovia Republican
(CR) notes(there are many hundred more items to be found, as this is but the
first few years of the railroads)

CR September 18, 1867 (compiled DHW)
Oswego & New York Midland
Rail Road: The stock subscribers from New Woodstock met and complained
that no survey has yet been made through New Woodstock as was agreed upon.
The board of directors resolved "to build the road on the shortest and
most feasible route, taking into consideration grades and curves
The survey through New Woodstock
has been made but has not been presented to the board. The survey
shows that the route from Syracuse to Norwich by way of New Woodstock to
be ten miles shorter than the route through Cazenovia and Eaton and of
equal if not better grade.
When built, the Midland
Rail Road will run from the village of Middletown, Orange county through
Sullivan, Delaware, Chenango and Madison counties, to the city of Oneida,
and then by way of the north shore of Oneida lake to Fulton and Oswego.
There will be a branch from
Norwich to DeRuyter and Skaneateles. The route from Norwich trough
Cazenovia, Fayetteville, Syracuse, Phoenix, Fulton, and Oswego was turned
down because Syracuse declined bonding.

CR September 25, 1867 Call to a meeting of the
citizens of the town of Cazenovia at the Lincklaen House September 28 to
consider the feasibility of constructing a rail road from Cazenovia to
Canastota or some other point on the (New York) Central Rail Road.

CR October 2, 1867 Failure of the planned Midland
Rail Road, from Syracuse to ?, no interest in Syracuse, a rail road from
Cazenovia to Canastota was favored to be constructed.

CR October 2, 1867 "New Railway Project --
Whereas, the project of building the Midland Pail Road, upon a line running
through Syracuse, Eaton and Norwich, has failed by reason of the refusal
of people of the city of Syracuse to subscribe to the capitol stock thereof,
therefore:
"Resolved, That we favor
the construction of a railway from Cazenovia to Canastota, or to such point
practicable.
"Thus it will be seen that
the project of connecting Cazenovia with some point on the Central is not
wholly an imaginative idea; but the support it receives from the leading
men of Cazenovia and Canastota shows it to be an entirely practical one.
"As it is evident that the
Midland will not open our beautiful town, with its immense water privileges
and other advantages, to the outside world (if it does any other villages
at present), we must look about for some other means of communication."

CR October 7, 1868

"R.R. MATTERS

"Editor of the Republican: Some
superficial and unsafe advisers are agitating the question of getting the
town or village of Cazenovia to bond or take stock of a rail road company
from Syracuse through this town to some point in the Chenango Valley, say
Sherburne, called the ‘Syracuse & Chenango Valley Rail Road' ...
"At the last session of
the Legislature of this State, some persons in the interest of Syracuse,
and against those of every other place affected thereby, procured by that
body two acts for building this road. ...
"What a noble sacrifice
this, toward inviting the Chenango Valley to pour it's wealth into the
lap of Syracuse on the part of (Syracuse) ... In short, making somebody
besides the city of Syracuse furnish the means and build a rail road for
the sole benefit of that city or it's projectors, without it costing the
amount of a single paper dollar.
"The (Cazenovia &) Canastota
Rail Road Bill was passed on the petition of a large majority of the tax-payers
representing a majority of the taxable property of the towns of Fenner,
Cazenovia, and the village of Canastota separately ...
"No petition by any inhabitant
of the county of Madison ever asked to place such one-sided and mischievous
bills as these (for the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road) upon our
statute books. Nor will any honest or intelligent inhabitant ask
to put them into execution now they are there. Let the Cazenovia
& Canastota Rail Road be given up, and nothing more will be heard of
the Syracuse & Chenango valley; nor will anything further ever be heard
of the project when contracts for the Canastota Road are once made."
(signed) "Progress"

CR October 16, 1867 "A rail road from Syracuse
through Fayetteville to Manlius is contemplated. A road is considered
from the New York Central in Chittenango to Cazenovia by way of Chittenango
Falls and the springs. Cazenovia and Canastota has become the all
absorbing topic of conversation."

CR October 23, 1867 A large delegation or men
from Fayetteville and Manlius were in town last week to see about extending
the Syracuse, Fayetteville & Manlius Rail Road to Cazenovia.
As far as could be learned, "the general reply of our townsmen was that
Cazenovia was bonded for the Midland, and would be glad to have that road
approach Cazenovia via Syracuse, Fayetteville, & Manlius, but that
a shorter road in that direction would hardly be considered a paying investment."

CR October 30, 1867 "Cazenovia & Canastota
Rail Road. The project of a rail road between Cazenovia and Canastota
is rapidly assuming definite shape. The surveys of the line have
been completed, with the most gratifying success, and leave no doubt as
to the perfect feasibility of the route.
"We trust and believe that
our citizens will not rest until the snort of the locomotive wakes the
echoes among our hills and valleys."

CR October 30, 1867 "We are informed that surveys
are being made from Chittenango to this place, under Chittenango auspices
- with what result we do not know."

CR October 30, 1867 "Chittenango - Our citizens
are just now excited over the prospect of a railroad to be built to Cazenovia,
and which, from the interest manifested, will no doubt go through."

CR April 2, 1869 Contracts let for the Cazenovia
and Canastota Railroad - a most useful and public enterprise.

CR April 28, 1869 "Ground was broken on the
farm of Hon. F.A. Hyatt, Perryville, Tuesday (April 27) morn, and the grading
of the road will now be pushed rapidly forward. It is said the men
and teams at work reminded one of a good old-fashioned ‘general training.'
The hour of deliverance draws nigh."

CR (date unknown) On May 11, after a year
of grading the line, the Cazenovia and Canastota Rail Road Co. contracted
with the Schenectady Locomotive Co. for two 25 ton locomotives, the be
ready by August 1, 1870.

CR July 13, 1870 A large force of men are
already at work on the tunnel at Beckwith's Gap, a boarding house has been
erected.

CR (date unknown) On August 2, 1870, track
laying began on the Cazenovia and Canastota Rail Road.

CR August 24, 1870 "Engine No. 1 named Cazenovia,
has arrived on the line from the Schenectady Locomotive Works. ... The
engine (No. 2) Canastota is to be ready for service in a few days."
(A photo of this engine arriving in Cazenovia is seen in the "Cazenovia
Pictorial Record.")

CR (date unknown) The track was laid to the
village of Cazenovia in September of 1870.

CR September 4, 1870 The Syracuse and Chenango
Valley Rail Road will open the most direct route from New York City to
the central and western portions of the state.

CR December 14, 1870 "The Tunnel -- The quiet
residence of Mr. Beckwith has already given place to a small village of
blacksmith and other shops, where tools, cars, etc. are already being prepared,
and it is expected that the work of boring the hill will be commenced about
the first of February."

CR February 22, 1871 The contractor and his men
have arrived in town to begin work on the Syracuse and Chenango Valley
Rail Road.

CR April 12, 1871 They have begun to go underground
over at the tunnel.

CR May 3, 1871 "The abutments of the Syracuse
and Chenango Valley Rail Road bridge over the "Pig City" creek are being
laid."

CR May 10,1871 A man was killed by falling
rock at Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road tunnel.

CR May 24, 1871 Surveys commenced yesterday
for the extension of the Cazenovia and Canastota Rail Road to New Woodstock
etc..

CR June 14, 1871 All persons are forbidden
from going into the tunnel of the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road
at any time without the consent of the contractor.

CR July 19, 1871 A workman was injured at
the tunnel by the falling of a stone upon him.

CR July 26, 1871 Grading on the Syracuse
and Chenango Valley Rail Road is complete to Oran, and the grading to the
tunnel will be complete in less than five weeks. The trains will
probably run to the tunnel by the first of October.

CR December 20, 1871 Work on the tunnel is pressing
favorably, the headings are within 400 feet of each other.

CR December 20, 1871 Trains will at present run
on the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road as far as the Temperance
House, about four miles from this (Cazenovia) village, and passengers will
be conveyed to and from that point by four-horse sleighs.

CR January 3, 1872 Work on the tunnel is progressing
rapidly, and it is expected to be finished and the track laid to Cazenovia
early in June. The grading is complete from Syracuse to Erieville.

CR January 31, 1872 The tunnel must be arched,
the nature of the rock is such that upon contact with the air it slacks
and becomes safe without the support of masonry.

CR February 14, 1872 "The greatest bore in town:
the tunnel."

CR February 14, 1872 Old Temperance House depot
is along the line of the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road.

CR March 6, 1872 The "headings" at the tunnel
met this morning - within 1/2 inch of each other.

CR April 4, 1872 The Cazenovia and Canastota
Rail Road will be extended to DeRuyter and opened by winter.

CR April 11, 1872 Landslide on the Chenango
Valley Rail Road between the Temperance House and Oran.

CR May 2, 1872 Chas. Lobb has finished
his job at the tunnel, and goes to Silver Creek, Chautauqua County to work
there on the Lakeshore Rail Road. George C. Beckwith also goes there
to reopen his store and supply the men employed by Mr. L.. George
is one of the old residents of Cazenovia, though a young man.

CR May 16, 1872

"A Visit to the Tunnel and a Glimpse of Cazenovia"

(compiled DHW)
Several officers of the
Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road had inspected the tunnel and invited
about 25 rail road men and citizens of Syracuse to return again with them.
They boarded Herman H. Stanton's coach-and-four at the Temperance House,
which is the present terminus of the Rail Road. The "deserted village"
was soon reached, where but a few weeks ago there were lively scenes.
The numerous boarding houses have been torn down, the blacksmith shop demolished,
and little remains except "the store" which once must have resembled Dickens'
"Curiosity Shop" to mark the spot. The company took lunch in the
yard surrounding a farm house before inspecting the cavern. Supt.
Stroud then took the pilgrims to the northern end of the great work.
Through a long cut with solid walls of stone, all passed to the entrance
of the tunnel, when warning was given that pieces of stone, weighing a
ton or less occasionally flaked off from the top and fell, and that all
who went through must take the chances. All entered upon the journey
of 1600 feet through solid rock. In the middle the temperature was
almost at the freezing point, and the only ray of light was in the distance.
Afterwards a brief visit to Cazenovia was made, and the location of the
station and a new hotel upon the lake were commented upon.
The work of arching the
tunnel to render it entirely secure, is to be commenced at once, and will
be done by the time the rails are laid to Cazenovia.

CR June 6, 1872 The first train passed through
the tunnel (June 3, 1872). The work or laying the rails has been
pushed with energy as of late, and on Saturday was completed some rods
through
the tunnel. The first train was drawn by the engine "Syracuse" and
consisted of three flat cars carrying about 40 workmen and rail road men.
"Anyone who would have predicted five years ago, that a train of cars would
run under the Beckwith farm would have been considered a very crazy prophet."

CR June 27, 1872 The trains that brought
the woodworker's (from Syracuse for a picnic in Cazenovia) last Thursday
(June 21, 1872) were the first passenger trains through the tunnel.
The work of arching is now going on.

CR June 27, 1872 Two train loads of picnickers
came to the woodworker's picnic, at least a thousand men, women, and children,
mainly on platform care made comfortable and attractive by a screen and
covering of cedar boughs. For some uncomprehensible reason the managers,
in selecting the grounds, chose to march this large number, largely made
tip of women and children, a mile and a half to a place not suited for
the purpose, when pleasant places were plenty on the west shore of the
lake, near the point where they left the cars. No wonder they returned
to Syracuse thoroughly disgusted with picnics and with Cazenovia. (compiled
DHW)

CR July 4, 1872 Omnibuses run to and from
the tunnel and Cazenovia.

CR July 11, 1872 Work has commenced on the
Syracuse and Chenango Valley Rail Road depot.

CR August 1, 1872 While going through the
tunnel a gentleman from Fayetteville narrowly escaped an intimate acquaintance
with a large stone detached from overhead.

CR August 22, 1872 McLaughlin, a laborer at
the tunnel was seriously injured by falling timbers.

CR September 26, 1872 Trains will be running through
the tunnel October 1. The stage ride tn the tunnel is rather tedious.

CR October 3, 1872 New engine on the Syracuse
and Chenango Valley Rail Road named "Cazenovia."

CR October 10, 1872 The Syracuse and Chenango
Valley Rail Road will be open to Erieville by the 15th.

Cazenovia Republican 1873
Article from the Cazenovia Republican, February 27, 1873, reprinted from the Utica Herald.

"I presume all the stories they tell about it can not be true. One may
live in Canastota and cherish a sincere love for the truth, but unless he
is extremely careful he will fall into a habit of exaggerating
facts.
There is Avery. He really believes that a stove full of Sullivan coal
will burn right along for two or three years without replenishing of getting
any attention. His great fear is that a car load of that coal will get of
fire some time, and as he doubts whether any earthly power could put the
fireout, he lives in constant fear that such a fire-car may be started
through the country, unquenchable, and setting fire to depots, cities, forests
and fences, as it hastened from one line to another by a terror-stricken
people.
The apprehension that the last
great day of doom may be brought about prematurely by a car-load of
that wonderful coal is hastening Avery to an untimely grave. Then there
is Chapman. Always afraid the boys will tie a string around the
smoke-stack of the engine on the Canastota and Cazenovia Railroad and
draw the train off down to the tow-path of the canal and forget to
bring it back. He does not care so much about losing the cars or the
engine, Chapman don't, but he is anxious about the safety of the
Cazenovia mail.
The cars are safe enough in Canastota, because the little boys th ere
are all honest; but just leave that little train standing out in Utica
over night - why, the forty thieves would steal those cars in twenty minutes.
It would take one boy half a minute to steal them so you see it must
take forty boys twenty minutes to steal them.
It is just to ride on that road.
The engineer who surveyed the route did not mar the fair face of nature
by planning any cross cuts, or deep cuts, or extra work. He took the
country as he found it; and the road winds around the sides of romantic
hills, and follows the direction of beautiful glens, for all the world
like a play-road built by boys.
The road does not miss many places between Canastota and Cazenovia.
You see, going in every direction, it must naturally strike nearly all
the hamlets in that section of country. It is amusing to see the engineer
on the short curves, watching the platform of the last car over the
smoke stack of his engine, and blowing brakes to prevent running into his own
train.
Then when the conductor comes
around for tickets, you know he is only in play, and when you give him
your ticket you do it just to keep up the joke, but of course it is all
in sport. Why, these little cars are as clean as wax and bright and
shining as a silver dollar. On the Central, where you find six inches
of cinders in your seat, you naturally expect to pay something, but
these clean cars do not mean railroading for dollars and cents. Then
the baggage car, as neat as a china closet, and almost as big. No
profane baggage man will ever throw a heavy trunk into that. If he does
he will break the car all to pieces. They are obliged to play
railroading carefully on those cars. It is not so much fun for the
baggage men, perhaps, but it is a great deal more comfortable for the
public.
Leaving Canastota, the cars climb up 700 feet and over in going nine
miles. The scenery is delightful. Below a brawling brook, bordered by grove,
or open field, or forest. Beyond, broad cultivated acres of farm land, and
as you gradually creep toward the sky, all the rich teeming valley
between Oneida Lake and the range of hills on which you ride is spread out
before you. Not exactly before you, either, because you must ride backward
to enjoy it best, and then, as the road winds through the rear and
through each side of the car.
You cross romantic country roads, which wind from Heaven or somewhere
up there, down through the woods, and you see signs "Look out for the
engine when the bell rings." These are necessary to prevent teamsters from
driving over the trains and spoiling the whole fairy arrangement.
Then there is a little stone
bridge, and a little depot, on which is painted "saloon" with much
discouragement in the last syllable. There is no liquor sold there, and
if there was the establishment would not hold enough to get anyone
drunk. Then you stop at a station where there is no depot, but no one
gets on, because the boys who live there are busy skating. I notice
that the conductor does not take his train off the track to pick up
passengers. If you want to ride on those cars you must go to the road.
The train will not leave the track to get you. The course of the road
is crooked, but the rules of the road are inflexible.
Thus, almost in a dream, you ride up the steep sides of a valley that
is always growing deeper until you reach the summit. In the valley
somewhere runs the outlet of Cazenovia Lake - Chittenango Creek. You look down at
the ice-bound streamlet, at the snow-laden forests, at the little
farm-houses, and you wonder whether it would hurt if the train should run off the
track, and a car should roll over your foot.
Probably it would, but it does not seem so to think of it. So you
reach Cazenovia, a quiet, picturesque village, well fitted to stand at the end
of this picturesque railway line. Were it not that Cazenovia is so liable
to incursions by heathen from Syracuse, it would be the pleasantest village
in the state; as it is, it does not come far short of it.
Those readers who have never made a trip over the Canastota and
Cazenovia Railroad can not call life complete until they take the ride. Those
who have will agree with me that there is nothing like it."

History of Railroads in Madison
Countyby Owen EvansCazenovia Republican 12/28/1961, and January 4, 1962

(compiled DHW)

The first project was the
Madison County Rail Road Co. which was organized on April 17, 1829 with
authority to "construct a single or double rail road or way from the village
of Chittenango to the village of village of Cazenovia, with the privilege
of extending the same southerly to any water communication between the
Susquehanna River and the Erie Canal.
Surveys were made and grading
was started at Chittenango, but after the death of Judge John B. Yates,
who had agreed to personally finance the first mile, work ceased and the
project was abandoned.

Note by DHW (1/4/1990): The grade for the Madison County Rail
Road of 1829 can be seen in the village of Chittenango near where Rouse
Street (which lies behind the stores on the east side of Genesee Street)
turns onto Genesee Street (opposite Arch Street). Only about 100 meters
(100 yards) of grading is visible - where it originated is not at this
time known to me so more work on level land may have been done. Local residents
have pointed out to me that the old grade can be traced along the hill
side for several thousand feet but upon investigation the "grading" south
of the bend of Rouse Street is actually formed by natural ledges and ridges
in the hill side. This "grade" does not follow a level or gradually
increasing slope and rises and falls in a pattern wholly different than
any rail line would. In fact the "grade" does not continue upwards,
but eventually can be followed back to the bottom of the slope.

Most of the fifty rail roads
that were proposed for Madison county were never built. Construction
was started in some cases but never finished. The Syracuse &
Utica Rail Road was finished July 3, 1839 and this later became the New
York Central.
At the end of the Civil
War the rural communities were eager to replace the stage coaches, ox carts
and waterways with rail roads which were the most luxurious form of travel
that had yet been offered to the public. Great interest was aroused
with the completion of the transcontinental rail road at Promontory Point
on May 10,1869. The first transcontinental run was made in 6 1/2
days and ended at the Hudson River Station July 29, 1869.
The first trains were passenger
trains, it was claimed that the first freight was not carried until 1856.
The Midland Rail Road, later
to become the Ontario & Western, was formed in 1867 and passed from
Oswego and through Oneida, Munsville, Eaton, and Earlville In Madison County.
It is now (1961) abandoned.
The Cazenovia & Canastota,
Rail Road (C&CRR), now Lehigh Valley Rail Road (LVRR), was incorporated
January 22, 1868. The Cazenovia and DeRuyter Rail Road (C&DRR)
was incorporated January 26, 1872 and was consolidated with the Cazenovia
and Canastota Rail Road as the Cazenovia, Canastota, and DeRuyter RR (CC&DRR)
which was incorporated August 28, 1878. The line to DeRuyter was
completed in 1878.
The Elmira, Cortland, &
Northern Rail Road (EC&NRR) was incorporated March 7, 1884 and acquired
the property of the CC&DRR about that time. The EC&NRR was
merged with the Lehigh Valley Rail Road Co. (LVRR) February 17, 1905 and
this became the LVRR January 1, 1950. No passengers have been
carried for several years (1961).

Note by DHW: The last run through Cazenovia was made in 1967.
In 1968 the ties and rails were taken up, the massive stone bridge over
Bingley road was demolished (a portion over Munger Brook still stands).
In 1976 the bridge over Chittenango Creek near Albany Street was taken
out and moved to Auburn.)

The Syracuse & Chenango
Valley Rail (S&CVRR) Road was incorporated April 16, 1868 and construction
was started in 1870. The first trains from Syracuse to the Temperance
House crossing in 1871 and horse drawn stages ran from Cazenovia to meet
the trains for two years until the tunnel was completed. On February
12, 1873 the first train ran from Syracuse to Earlville and returned.
The track ran through rough terrain - four men were killed in 1870 when
a landslide buried them between Earlville and Lebanon.
The tunnel is 1,831 feet
long, 15 feet wide and 18 feet high. Laborers came from the coal
mining regions of Pennsylvania and worked in two gangs - one on the north
(west) end and one on the south (east) end. The tunnel was almost
completely blocked in the 1890s by rock falls. Four passenger and
four freight trains ran each way daily. A trolley line from Syracuse
to Manlius caused a cut back in runs.

On 13, 1869, A.W. Tillotson
and Mary E. Tillotson, his wife, sold the land to the Cazenovia and Canastota
Railroad Company. It is presumed that the depot was erected soon
afterwards.
In 1870 and 1871, the Cazenovia
and Canastota Railroad took a mortgage on the property with the Union Trust
Company. Then, in October, 1876, there was a summons filed for non-
payment of mortgages. Charles L. Kennedy, as referee, had sold the
property to Horace F. Clark of New York City on January 11, 1873.
Horace F. Clark and Marie
Louisa Clark, his wife, sold the property to the Cazenovia and Canastota
Railroad in March, 1873. In June, 1873, there was an agreement consolidating
the Cazenovia and Canastota and the Canastota and DeRuyter railroads (into
a company to be called the Cazenovia, Canastota and DeRuyter Railroad,
and this is recorded on may 29, 1890.
In October, 1873, the Cazenovia,
Canastota and DeRuyter Railroad conveyed all property to Charles S. Fairchild
of Albany, N.Y., as trustee. On May 3, 1876, the Cazenovia, Canastota
and DeRuyter Railroad conveyed all property to Sidney T. Fairchild, and
on October 26, 1877, to Charles S. Fairchild, as trustee. There was
a mortgage assigned by Charles S. Fairchild to John B. Dumont of Jessup
Paton Company of New York City on July 4, 1881, and Mr. Dumont assigned
a mortgage to Gilman S. Moulton on September 5, 1883.
In 1882, the Cazenovia,
Canastota and DeRuyter Railroad leased the property for 30 years to the
Utica, Ithaca and Elmira Railroad.
The next record has Charles
Parker, as referee, sell the property at mortgage foreclosure to Austin
Corbin and J. Rogers maxwell in 1884. In 1884, Austin Corbin, Hannah
Corbin, his wife, and J. Rogers Maxwell sold the property to the Elmira,
Cortland and Northern Railroad.
The Elmira, Cortland and
Northern Railroad merged with the Lehigh Valley Railroad on March 7, 1905.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad
Company Corporation of the State of Pennsylvania sold the premises to the
Cazenovia Lumber and Coal Company, recorded at Wampsville on December 8,
1966.

Note by DHW: in the 1970s the station was used as an ill-fated
community center (AKA the Charles Fairchild Kennard Center), as a class
room and meeting center for the fledgling Idyllic Foundation ("Eidos"),
and eventually became Gene Gissen's photo studio (and as such it still
remains today [1999]).